Many consumer-oriented applications have an auto-update option. In enterprise scenarios, however, an administrator often wishes to lock down the version of an application used in the enterprise environment. Accordingly, the administrator often disables the auto-update option for applications. Instead, the administrator may prefer to distribute applications through an alternative mechanism that is controlled by the administrator.
Unfortunately, there is no standard and universal way to learn whether a new version of an application is available. The inability to detect when an application is available, in a standard and universal way, can prevent an administrator from applying the latest (and preferred) version of an application once it is released. In some cases, information about newly available versions of applications can be obtained through an application programming interface, a RICH SITE SUMMARY feed, and/or blogs. Nevertheless, even in these cases, the mechanism for releasing the information about newly available versions of applications is generally vendor-specific. Accordingly, an administrator of an enterprise computing network will generally be unable to apply the same technique for detecting newly available versions of applications across applications from different vendors. The instant disclosure, therefore, identifies and addresses a need for systems and methods for managing application updates.